Sweetpotatoes, unlike irish potatoes (solanum tuberosum), are not tuber propagated plants. A “tuber” is a short, thickened portion of an underground branch. Along a tuber, “eyes” are found, each of which comprises a ridge bearing a scale-like leaf (analogous to a branch leaf) having minute meristematic buds in the axial of the leaf. By contrast, sweetpotato roots are developmentally and anatomically true roots, lacking meristematic buds, and are not derived from an underground branch. Sweetpotatoes do not form tubers.